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“But it’s worthy of pursuit, because it may be — it may be, if this is achievable,” Casey added.

Casey, who is co-chairman of the Senate Caucus on Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism, said he was at first ” very skeptical” of the proposal that Syria could agree to surrender its chemical weapons to international control.

“I was, in fact, very negative, because of the lack of credibility on the part of the Russians and the Syrian regime when it comes to this issue of chemical weapons,” he said.

However, Casey added that if an agreement is reached on the removal of chemical weapons in Syria, it “might be a better and more comprehensive and certain result than you could get from even a military operation.”

But he did not rule out the possibility of an airstrike, saying if the Russians and Syrians do not follow through on the proposed plan, a U.S. intervention is “highly likely.”

“The ball is squarely and totally in the court of the Syrian regime and the Russians. They either have to do this or not,” Casey said. “And if they don’t do it, if they don’t go through with this, I think it’s highly likely that you’ll have a military operation.”